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The Journals
of Lewis and Clark: Dates June 21, 1805 - June 24, 1805
The following
excerpts are taken from entries of the Journals of Lewis
and Clark. Dates: June 21, 1805 - June 24, 1805
June 21, 1805
Friday, June 21. Having made the necessary preparations
for continuing our route, a part of the baggage was carried
across the creek into the high plain, three miles in advance
and placed on one of the carriages with truck wheels: the
rest of the party was employed in drying meat and dressing
elk skins. We killed several mule deer and an elk, and observed
as usual vast quantities of buffalo who came to drink at
the river. For the first time on the Missouri we have seen
near the falls a species of fishing duck, the body of which
is brown and white, the wings white, and the head and upper
part of the neck of a brick red, with a narrow beak, which
seems to be of the same kind common in the Susquehanna,
Potomac and James' river. The little wood which this neighborhood
affords consists of the broad and narrow-leafed cottonwood,
the box alder, the narrow and broad-leafed willow, the large
or sweet willow, which was not common below Maria's river,
but which here attains the same size and has the same appearance
as in the Atlantic states. The undergrowth consists of roses,
gooseberries, currants, small honeysuckles, and the redwood,
the inner part of which the engages or watermen are fond
of smoking when mixed with tobacco.
June 22, 1805
Saturday, 22. We now set out to pass the portage
and halted for dinner at eight miles distance near a little
stream. The axletrees of our carriage, which had been made
of an old mast, and the cottonwood tongues broke before
we came there: but we renewed them with the timber of the
sweet willow, which lasted till within half a mile of our
intended camp, when the tongues gave way and we were obliged
to take as much baggage as we could carry on our backs down
to the river, where we formed an encampment in a small grove
of timber opposite to the Whitebear islands. Here the banks
on both sides of the river are handsome, level, and extensive;
that near our camp is not more than two feet above the surface
of the water. The river is about eight hundred yards wide
just above these islands, ten feet deep in most places,
and with a very gentle current. The plains however on this
part of the river are not so fertile as those from the mouth
of the Muscleshell and thence downwards; there is much more
stone on the sides of the hills and on the broken lands
than is to be found lower down. We saw in the plains vast
quantities of buffalo, a number of small birds, and the
large brown curlew, which is now sitting, and lays its eggs,
which are of a pale blue with black-specks, on the ground
without any nest. There is also a species of lark much resembling
the bird called the oldfield lark, with a yellow breast
and a black spot on the croup; though it differs from the
latter in having its tail formed of feathers of an unequal
length and pointed; the beak too is somewhat longer and
more curved, and the note differs considerably. The prickly
pear annoyed us very much to-day by sticking through our
moccasins. As soon as we had kindled our fires we examined
the meat which captain Clarke had left here, but found that
the greater part of it had been taken by the wolves.
June 23, 1805
Sunday, 23. After we had brought up the canoe and
baggage captain Clarke went down to the camp at Portage
creek, where four of the men had been left with the Indian
woman. Captain Lewis during the morning prepared the camp,
and in the afternoon went down in a canoe to Medicine river
to look after the three men who had been sent thither to
hunt on the 19th, and from whom nothing had as yet been
heard. He went up the river about half a mile and then walked
along on the right bank, hallooing as he went, till at the
distance of five miles he found one of them who had fixed
his camp on the opposite bank, where he had killed seven
deer and dried about six hundred pounds of buffalo meat,
but had killed no elk, the animal chiefly wanted. He knew
nothing of his companions except that on the day of their
departure from camp he had left them at the falls and come
on to Medicine river, not having seen them since. As it
was too late to return Captain Lewis passed [280]over on
a raft which he made for the purpose and spent the night
at Shannon's camp, and the next morning,
June 24, 1805
Monday, 24, sent J. Fields up the river with orders
to go four miles and return, whether he found the two absent
hunters or not; then descending the southwest side of Medicine
river, he crossed the Missouri in the canoe, and sent Shannon
back to his camp to join Fields and bring the meat which
they had killed: this they did, and arrived in the evening
at the camp on Whitebear islands. A part of the men from
Portage creek also arrived with two canoes and baggage.
On going down yesterday captain Clarke cut off several angles
of the former route so as to shorten the Portage considerably,
and marked it with stakes: he arrived there in time to have
two of the canoes carried up in the high plain about a mile
in advance. Here they all repaired their moccasins, and
put on double soals to protect them from the prickly pear
and from the sharp points of earth which have been formed
by the trampling of the buffalo during the late rains: this
of itself is sufficient to render the portage disagreeable
to one who had no burden; but as the men are loaded as heavily
as their strength will permit, the crossing is really painful:
some are limping with the soreness of their feet, others
are scarcely able to stand for more than a few minutes from
the heat and fatigue: they are all obliged to halt and rest
frequently, and at almost every stopping place they fall
and many of them are asleep in an instant; yet no one complains
and they go on with great cheerfulness. At their camp Drewyer
and Fields joined them, and while Captain Lewis was looking
for them at Medicine river, they returned to report the
absence of Shannon about whom they had been very uneasy.
They had killed several buffalo at the bend of the Missouri
above the falls: and dried about eight hundred pounds of
meat and got one hundred pounds of tallow: they had also
killed some deer, but had seen no elk. After getting the
party in motion with the canoes captain Clarke returned
to his camp at Portage creek.
We were now occupied in fitting up a boat of skins, the
frame of which had been prepared for the purpose at Harper's
ferry. It was made of iron, thirty-six feet long, four feet
and a half in the beam, and twenty-six inches wide in the
bottom. Two men had been sent this morning for timber to
complete it, but they could find scarcely any even tolerably
straight sticks four and a half feet long, and as the cottonwood
is too soft and brittle we were obliged to use the willow
and box-alder.
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